A Day In The Life
by Lalita Romane
Summary: Six is no longer the young man he once was. Time marches on, war or no war. Life has changed since those early years, in more ways than one. What will the not too terribly distant future of Providence be like? Sex Rix Caliday


A Day in the Life-

Six woke in a cold sweat. He sat up quickly, reaching for something he couldn't quite remember. His hands, finding nothing to grasp, dropped limply to his sheets. His breathing was ragged, and he stared out at the darkened room. A noise beside him made him snap his eyes to the other side of his bed.

"Mmm.. What's going on?" a yawn broke through the muffled words, "Was there an alert?" Dark, tired eyes peaked from between strands of messy hair.

Six shook his head slightly as he looked at the man lying next to him; he was dressed in one of the oversized green t-shirts he always wore to bed. "It's nothing Rex." his voice was rough and low as he motioned towards what was technically Rex's pillow even though it was rarely used. "Go back to sleep."

"You sure everything is okay?" Exhaustion practically radiated from the younger man. It had been a long day, and Six couldn't help him quite as much as he used to.

"Yeah, it's fine. Don't worry about it, and get some rest." Six forced himself to lie back down on his side of the bed.

Rex turned and snuggled into Six's bare chest. "M'kay…love you Six." Then he was drifting back away to sleep.

"I love you too Rex." Six whispered as he rested his chin on Rex's head, face touching his soft hair. Then, He pulled Rex even closer to him, and tried to forget his dreams.

*.-.*

Morning came in Providence with no more than a shift change, and a new menu in the cafeteria. The alarm clock beside their bed started beeping softly at 5:00. Six's hand reached out almost immediately, and flicked the button to turn it off. He sat up slowly, brushing the sleep from his eyes, and rubbing a hand through what was the mess of his hair. Finally sure he was awake, he turned to the once again sprawled out form of Rex.

"Come on." he leaned close to the man. "You know you have to get up."

"But I don't want to." came the muffled voice from beneath a pillow. "We can sleep in just this once. White won't mind." But already, he was starting to sit up, and brush the sleep from his face.

"You know he will. He always does. Besides, I seem to remember that when we slept in last week, there wasn't very much sleeping going on." Six stretched, and stood straightening out the legs of his pajama pants.

"Mmm. That was nice." Rex responded with a smile.

"Was it worth the official reprimand we received for it?" Six asked, not paying much attention to anything other than looking for his missing sock. He was surprised by the soft kiss on the back of his neck, and he turned towards its smiling origin.

"It was so worth it." Rex grinned teasingly at Six. "So, how about we go for two reps in as many weeks?"

"Rex, you make it hard to say no."

*.-.*

The better part of two hours later, Six was staring into his full length mirror and straightening his tie. He looked into it, checking for any imperfections, and as always, his eyes caught on the dusting of white along the sides of his face. He brushed the wisps of white hair with his fingers, whispering softly to himself. "Six, you are getting old."

"You are not old." Just his luck, Rex had walked out of the bathroom, already dressed, just in time to hear him. "You look… distinguished."

"Distinguished is just a nice way of saying old." Six snorted, finally turning away from the mirror. "Besides, those words coming from the mouth of a twenty five year old in the prime of his life don't mean much. One of these days I'm going to wake up to a Dear Jhon letter, because you found someone closer to your-"

"Don't even say that. It's not true, and you know it." Rex leaned on Six's arm. "You know I have been absolutely 100% in love with you since I was 16 years old. You already made me wait until I turned 18; so you aren't getting rid of me now."

"You are always so dramatic." Six replied blandly, but the words had the reassuring affect that Rex had intended. "Now, we are already late, do you have anything else you need to do before White decides to ship us to bases halfway around the world from each other?" He walked to a large, white bookcase, and picked up the folded katanas off their designated shelf, tucking them into his sleeve sheathes.

"I would tunnel through the earth to get to you if I had to." Rex walked up to the man again, wrapping his arms around Six's waist.

"Still being dramatic I see." Six set his hand on Rex's head, ruffling his hair. "Now, we have to get to the meeting room before White sends someone after us." He detached himself from Rex again. "Do you need anything else in here?"

"Other than the obvious?"

"Yes."

"Nope, I'm all good." Rex gestured to the utility belt that had been added to the otherwise identical outfit he had always worn. "Everything is in the belt."

"And if you lose the belt?" Six asked, as he had every morning since Rex decided to carry around a few weapons that wouldn't fall apart if he got too emotional.

"I have a knife in each boot, and another on a spine sheathe." Rex grinned, peaking through the whips of hair that had already escaped his ponytail. "I'm not 17 anymore, I remember everything. Besides, I had the world's best teacher."

"You're going for flattery now?" Six deadpanned, raising an eyebrow.

"Depends, is it working?" Rex cocked his head to the side.

"No."

"Aww." Rex wined, attempting, but not quite succeeding at looking injured.

"You can keep it up though." Six spoke up as he walked for the door, flicking out the lights as he went. "I like it."

*.-.*

Six sat alone in his office a couple of hours later. White had gotten huffy, but no huffier than he usually was these days. He had hemorrhoids, and probably a prostate infection, though no one was really sure- it wasn't like they could send a doctor in to check him out, and the robotic doctor droids could only do so much before it was better to just have a trained professional in the room. Six idly thought that if it was _him_ with all of those problems, he would just walk out in the suit then 'accidently' have a nanite breach, just so he could get some real medical attention.

There actually wasn't a whole lot for him to do that day. He filled out some paper work (in triplicate) and did a little filing. He had even gone to the training room for a couple of hours, but eventually, there wasn't anything else he could work on. After he had eaten lunch, he went back to his office, and finished off the new paperwork that was in his inbox.

When he was sure that there was nothing else to do, he had gone down to the observation deck, to see if there were any Evos that needed his attention, but Rex and Noah were taking care of all of them. Six leaned back in his computer chair, thinking. Noah, well, he was one thing that had turned out better than anyone had expected. Somehow, when they were about 19 years old, Noah had gone from hired friend to hired gun- all without breaking a stride. He blamed it on some new classes he had taken at the mall, but Six knew it went deeper than that. Noah was just a little too good, too strong, too fast; Six never asked though, he simply nodded his head to Noah in the hallways of Providence, and occasionally spoke to him when Rex brought him for dinner. He wasn't sure he really wanted to know. But one thing was clear; Noah was a huge asset on the field. He had good marksmanship, and hand-to-hand skills, and years of getting dragged into Rex's Evo fights had given him the guts he needed to charge head on into battle without a second thought. Sometimes, it was even almost as if he _knew_ what the Evo was going to do next, and could prepare for it. Six shook his head, wrenching his thoughts away from the past. He was even starting to think like an old man.

Surely, there was _something_ he could do? He couldn't remember ever being as _not_ busy as he had been these last few weeks. He looked around his immaculate white office. It was huge. It was also extremely empty, and quiet. He stood and walked to the large window that was one of the walls, and looked down on the quiet bustle of the techies as they received, sorted, and dispatched agents to deal with Evo reports. Used to be, he craved peace, he wanted quiet. That was all different now, along with so much else. He needed noise. He needed movement. He needed chaos. He needed Holiday.

*.-.*

It surprised him, how long it took for him to think of Holiday. She had been his preferred dose of 'normal' for more years than he really cared to remember. He headed to her lab, only stopping to pick up a cup of coffee.

As soon as he stepped into the long familiar room, he knew he had made the right choice. Holiday was sitting at her desk as more techies bustled around doing their jobs. He walked up to the woman who was bent over her currant 'pet.' As Six walked closer, he felt wide, pink, eyes focus on him. The ball of green fluff started making odd little cheeping noises to alert his mistress that she had a guest.

Holiday sat up, turning her head to Six, smile already in place. "Hello Six." She widened her smile as she brushed a strand of hair from her face. Holiday was a few years younger than he was, but she was already sprouting wide swaths of gray hair. She refused to dye it, claiming that she didn't have time to keep it up, and that she liked it. She also said she kept it the way it was so that Rex would have a visual reminder of how much he made her worry, since he caused each and every one.

Six nodded in acknowledgement of the greeting. "How has your family been Holi?" he asked, leaning against the wall by her desk.

"Fine, fine." She turned a picture frame on her desk so he could see the smiling faces beaming from the frame. "Sarah graduates high school next week, and is driving Calan up the wall. He swears that he is going to put a leash on her so she doesn't try to sneak off to the college dorms before her party. You and Rex are going to be there right?" Holiday's voice shone with pride as she spoke about her daughter. "She is even younger than I was when I graduated. And she wants to work with the nanites too. She says that when she graduates she is going to come work for me here at Providence." She looked up at Six. "You _are _coming right? It's also going to be her 10th birthday party, since she will be at school when her birthday rolls around."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Six promised. "Is the captain's back still giving him trouble?" Calan had gotten on the wrong end of an Evo's fist a few months back, and had been slammed into a brick wall, hard enough to break his back. He was almost killed, at the least, he should have been paralyzed; but Holiday had stepped in, doing everything she could to save him. Now, Calan could walk, but he would never be back in active service.

"He's better now. He just switched medications, and this one looks like it is going to be the one that really helps him." A sudden, loud, cheep from the bit of green fluff on the desk drew both of their attentions. "Aww." Holiday cooed, leaning close to the source of the noise. "Poor Puffkin feels neglected." She petted it's fuzzy head/body earning a nuzzle, and happy cooing. "I think this was a bird of some kind, but I'm not sure which." Holiday replied to Six's questioning glance.

Every once in a while, extremely rarely actually, an animal would go Evo, but instead of getting grotesque and vicious, they would, become something sweet, and cute. There were plenty of theories about this phenomenon (most of them Holiday's) but no sure answer. In fact, these, 'Puffkins' were only recently discovered, even though the Event had taken place a little over 15 years ago. The fact that they suddenly started appearing out of nowhere, with no reasonable explanation, four of five years back drove Holiday crazy. She was _sure_ that their nanites held at least part of the answer to unlocking the secret of how to recode the nanites. She was constantly hunting them down, and comparing their data to Rex's trying to see if there was any resemblance.

Personally, Six was pretty sure that the Sevos (Special extra variegated organisms) had been around just as long as the rest of the Evos, but due to the fact that they were small, and relatively defenseless, they didn't live long enough to be discovered. In fact, there were only two things about this new strain of Evo that were known for certain. 1) No human had ever turned Sevo. And 2) Every single one of them was incurable. News of them had recently reached the general public, and nowadays there was a thriving black market for them as 'luxury' pets for the rich. The idea was that since they were already Evos, they would not suddenly transform and eat you; this was, technically, a real concern since quite a few pampered, prissy, little purse dogs had done just that, eating their Heiresses in their sleep. Since there were only a few Sevos in the world that didn't belong to some government or another, each sold for millions.

This particular Sevo seemed to be an overlarge round ball of thick, fluffy, lime green fir, with wide, innocent pink eyes, tiny hands, and huge feet that stuck about an inch past the tips of its fur. The whole thing was about the size of a basketball. "What are you going to do with it?" he asked offhandedly as he watched her pamper the little thing. "It is never going to make it if you let it loose in the Petting Zoo."

Holiday suddenly went rigid, putting Six on the alert. "Well…" she started, not looking up at Six, and fidgeting with a bit of the Sevo's fur. "I just finished testing him, and we already have two of them at home…"

"Mhm." Six didn't like where this was going.

"And, well, Calan already said that if I come home with another one, he would sell all three of them on craigslist… and, well…"

"You want me to take it." Six broke in.

"Would you?" She looked up at him with shining, pathetic, eyes, turning the ball of fluff so that it would too. "Please?" They just looked so sweet, and innocent, and sad. It was heartbreaking.

"No." Six didn't have a heart. Or, at least, not one that responded to the sad, deplorable innocence of the puppy eyes.

Holiday instantly narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, then, smiling brightly, held the fluff ball op so that it was at eyelevel to him. "It's green."

*.-.*

"This is where I sleep." Six pointed to the bed. "This, is where you sleep." He turned and pointed to a corner of the room where he had thrown down a couple of newspapers and an old towel. "Do you understand?"

The bit of fluff he had set on the coffee table ignored him, and bounced up and down, cheeping happily.

"Look at me." Six ordered it.

The ball turned and faced the other direction, investigating the remote that sat there.

Six sighed, and walked to the couch, sitting down close enough to touch the Sevo. "This isn't going to work out if you don't listen to me. I don't accept disobedience. Understand?" The thing bounced closer to him, waving its tiny hands. Six reached down with a slight smile, and rubbed its head. "You remind me of someone else I know." He mused as the little ball made happy noises and snuggled its head into Six's palm. "Okay. Maybe you are pretty cu-"

Of course, Rex, master of perfect timing that he was, chose exactly that moment to walk in. Six snatched his hand from the Sevo's head as Rex turned to hang his jacket on the peg next to the door. "Today was pretty slow. You should come out on field duty with me tomorrow if White let-" He turned around. "What's that?"

"Proof That I Am A Pushover. I call him Proof for short." Six sighed, leaning back onto the couch, and pulled his glasses off so he could have better access to the pressure points on his temples.

"Okay.." Rex walked to the couch and sat next to Six, watching as the Sevo nosed a magazine that had been laid on the table. "Is this part of your midlife crisis? Cause you already have the Camaro, and the Ninja."

"No." Six groaned. "This has _nothing_ to do with my age. Nothing."

"Then why is it in our room?" Rex put his fingers out to the Sevo, and after a moment of sniffing it, The fuzzy little animal butted his hand with its head, signaling that Rex should pet it.

"Holiday." Six muttered, looking up as Rex played with Proof.

"Ah." Rex nodded, understanding dawning.

"Yeah." Six muttered, reaching out to twine his own fingers into the silky fur of the small beast.

"Well," Rex started, a smile paying on his lips, "it _is_ green."

"Rex?"

"Yeah Six?"

"Shut up."

*.-.*

An: There it is, A Day in the Life, with our favorite green man. I wanted to write something what was more subtle, and still good. I found this to be harder than I thought it would be, and I discovered something about myself, chiefly, that I can't do subtle. I tried, really I did, but at some point the subtle idea of following an ageing Six around for a day turned into my regular grade of, Okay! Let's make it cute, and snappy, and funny!, and I'm sorry for that. I hope you enjoyed this anyway, even with my deviation from the original plan.

Remember! Read, review, and criticize!


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